CARLISLE — From Shippensburg to Camp Hill, heroin touches nearly every area in Cumberland County, said First Assistant District Attorney Jaime Keating.

The Patriot-News, file photo

But in the case Keating was prosecuting, he said the sales occurred in an area many are familiar with — the parking lot of the Camp Hill Giant.

The trial for Cedric L. Daniels, 42, began Monday. He is facing three counts of delivery of heroin, and one count of possession with intent to deliver.

Keating told the Cumberland County jury in his opening statements that the investigation started when a heroin purchase was set up with Daniels through a confidential informant working with the Cumberland County Drug Task Force.

The first sale occurred April 13, 2013, when the informant met with Daniels, who was driving a black Ford Fusion with an Atlanta Falcons sticker. Daniels and the informant met him in the Giant parking lot for a sale of eight bags of heroin, Keating said.

Keating added the serial numbers on the cash the informant used to pay Daniels was recorded by the drug task force.

The informant met with Daniels again April 17 in the Giant parking lot, Keating said, this time for the purchase of 30 bags of heroin.

In both sales, a different officer who had been conducing surveillance walked in front of Daniels' car, and identified him as the driver inside, Keating told the jury.

Two more sales were set up on April 18 and 22 at the same location, Keating said, and the following day, a special emergency response team conducted a traffic stop, arresting Daniels and his brother, Rashun C. Greggs, 37. Keating told the jury police obtained a search warrant, and looked through Daniels’ apartment on the 100 block of November Drive, Camp Hill, where police found over 100 bags of heroin. These bags, he told the jury, were packaged for sale, and were not for personal use.

During testimony Monday, Daniels’ attorney, Gary Kelley, tried to poke holes in some of the surveillance techniques conducted by the officers. Both Cpl. Scott Wolfe and Det. Eric Dale of the Cumberland County Drug Task Force testified they had walked in front of Daniels’ parked car during the deal, and saw him inside, as other officers took photographs of the car.

But Kelley showed both officers the photos, and asked if they could identify the driver inside through the tinted windows, to which both replied, “no.”

When Dale pointed out it’s typical for a drug dealer to have tinted windows to deter surveillance, Kelley said, “I have tinted windows. Am I a drug dealer?”

“I don’t know, are you?” Dale asked before Judge M.L. Ebert ended the exchange, telling them they were getting argumentative.

And a third officer, Detective Troy McNair, of the drug task force, testified he was involved with the operation on several occasions. First he conducted surveillance outside of Daniels’ apartment, and followed the black Ford Fusion with the Falcons sticker from the complex April 18 to the Giant parking lot. He testified, however, that he did not see the driver.

And when Daniels and his brother were taken into custody April 23, McNair said he was among the officers to execute a search warrant on Daniels’ apartment. Inside, he said they found a digital scale, an “owe sheet” with names and dollar amounts, plastic baggies typically used for packaging, and heroin packaged for sale.

He said a user would have no need to weigh the heroin, and package it in such a manner, indicating it was for sale and not personal use.

McNair said police also found a significant amount of cash, and some of those bills had serial numbers matching the bills from the controlled buys.

Daniels’ trial is expected to continue 9 a.m. Tuesday.

His brother, Greggs, 37, pleaded guilty March 11, and was sentenced April 1 to 21 to 60 months in state prison on one count of possession with intent to sell heroin.

When District Attorney David Freed announced the brothers’ arrests last year, he said they were running a significant operation in Camp Hill, adding it is an indication of a growing problem in all parts of the county.

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